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Lyft and Uber Won’t Be Happy Until They’re Your One-Stop Transit Guide

nytimes.com

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Re: Lyft and Uber Won’t Be Happy Until They’re Your One-Stop Transit Guide

#71

Post by peterwwillis »

perfmode wrote: post #7
princeb wrote: post #3

i sure wouldn't mind some vc-subsidized underground trains. maybe if they became competitive rapid transit operators as well, the world could become a better place

my dream is to buy the NYC metro system and take drastic measures to revive it.

At this point, with a sufficient fortune, the simplest, most drastic thing would be to buy all new infrastructure, hire 10,000 workers, and install it all over a couple months. The current system includes just over 6,000 trains, on 36 lines, traveling through 472 stations, on 245 miles of route track (not counting the other 597 miles of track), though the upgrade only requires a small percentage of those. A total shutdown would interrupt over 135 Million rides per month.

Re: Lyft and Uber Won’t Be Happy Until They’re Your One-Stop Transit Guide

#72

Post by karthikb »

giantsloth wrote: post #35
princeb wrote: post #3

i sure wouldn't mind some vc-subsidized underground trains. maybe if they became competitive rapid transit operators as well, the world could become a better place

This happened with trains in the 19th century and it was an absolute disaster. Please learn your history on privatized public goods. It results in massive fragmentation in standards, extreme levels of corruption and an overall worse experience for most people.

Suggest that you actually look at privately run transit infrastructure that exists today. Tokyo subway systems (JR, Tokyo Metro, Keisei) - all private. Or Hong Kong - MTR is private.

The real problem is putting operations and verification in the same hat - public or private. Private transit systems work well when government regulators have the power to set and enforce a strict SLA. They fail without oversight. Same with public systems. When the operational and regulatory agency are the same, it becomes hard to penalize failures.

Re: Lyft and Uber Won’t Be Happy Until They’re Your One-Stop Transit Guide

#73

Post by usaar333 »

Spivak wrote: post #70
usaar333 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ADA already forces decisions to be made contrary to environmental concerns. Added construction being a key one. IMO, ADA is a great example of overbearing government regulation. It doesn't leave much room for "reasonable" accommodations and dictates solutions. (Case in point, my condo building can't use a portion of trash rooms as recycle storage, which gives large environmental benefits, because of wheelchair access…

The fact that people consider it 'added' rather than the bare minimum is partly why the ADA is prescriptive. Also, because it would be incredibly burdensome for someone with a disability to have to figure out how each building does their 'accommodations'. > why does this matter on floors where wheelchair bound residents don't live? Because residents aren't the only people who could be using that trash room. Because a…

Right, I agree on the intention of ADA. But buildings should be allowed to make reasonable tweaks.

My building was built before recycles and computer became a huge thing. Trash room only has a trash shoot. To dispose compost, I need to take an elevator 30 floors down to dispose compost, which takes a lot of time.

If the building could allocate a third of trash rooms to store recycles, rotate them if a resident became disabled, we'd be in a situation where able bodied people are better off and disabled people are no worse off. Instead ADA is too restrictive, so we're in a suboptimal spot

Re: Lyft and Uber Won’t Be Happy Until They’re Your One-Stop Transit Guide

#74

Post by nathanaldensr »

woolvalley wrote: post #65
jacknews wrote: post #39

I get the pitch. Customer wishes to go from A to B. Ride-sharing app will plan the trip and charge for each leg, because they own them all. Personally, I don't think it's ever going to work that way, at least not on a single locked-in platform, and I think this is all hot air, fed by hot quantitative-easing cash.

Can't you see the dream of automated synchronized carpool pickups from metro train stations? I don't think uber will ever make it's own metro lines, but I can really see how it could be made to work well together.

Humans are good at dreaming and imagining things. We're not so good at understanding the nitty-gritty details, especially if they deal with possible future states.

Re: Lyft and Uber Won’t Be Happy Until They’re Your One-Stop Transit Guide

#75

Post by TylerE »

karthikb wrote: post #72
giantsloth wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happened with trains in the 19th century and it was an absolute disaster. Please learn your history on privatized public goods. It results in massive fragmentation in standards, extreme levels of corruption and an overall worse experience for most people.

Suggest that you actually look at privately run transit infrastructure that exists today. Tokyo subway systems (JR, Tokyo Metro, Keisei) - all private. Or Hong Kong - MTR is private. The real problem is putting operations and verification in the same hat - public or private. Private transit systems work well when government regulators have the power to set and enforce a strict SLA. They fail without oversight. Same w…

Your definition of 'Private' is interesting.

Tokyo Metro is owned by... the national and local government.

Re: Lyft and Uber Won’t Be Happy Until They’re Your One-Stop Transit Guide

#76

Post by thinkpad20 »

karthikb wrote: post #72
giantsloth wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happened with trains in the 19th century and it was an absolute disaster. Please learn your history on privatized public goods. It results in massive fragmentation in standards, extreme levels of corruption and an overall worse experience for most people.

Suggest that you actually look at privately run transit infrastructure that exists today. Tokyo subway systems (JR, Tokyo Metro, Keisei) - all private. Or Hong Kong - MTR is private. The real problem is putting operations and verification in the same hat - public or private. Private transit systems work well when government regulators have the power to set and enforce a strict SLA. They fail without oversight. Same w…

I think your point about operations and verification is spot on. However, it’s worth noting that Japan (less familiar with other countries) has tremendous cultural advantages over the US when it comes to privatizing infrastructure. Punctuality, cleanliness, attention to detail, engineering prowess, safety, collectivism — many things that lend themselves to a well-functioning transit system — are all deeply interwoven into Japanese history and culture in a way that is difficult to imagine being the case in America. Which isn’t to say that it couldn’t be successful here, but it’s not an equivalent set of circumstances.

Re: Lyft and Uber Won’t Be Happy Until They’re Your One-Stop Transit Guide

#77

Post by samstr »

elvirs wrote: post #64
toomuchtodo wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which coincidentally just removed the ability to book Uber trips in app.

they are making space for 'request Waymo van'

I can't wait this. Totally should have been named 'Google Ride' though.

Re: Lyft and Uber Won’t Be Happy Until They’re Your One-Stop Transit Guide

#78

Post by huac »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #47
treis wrote: post #15

I'm pretty sure I already have my one-stop transit guide in Google Maps.

Which coincidentally just removed the ability to book Uber trips in app.

I doubt Google removed that ability; Uber probably decided that it was worth the increased friction to require users go to their app (and thus collect better data).

Re: Lyft and Uber Won’t Be Happy Until They’re Your One-Stop Transit Guide

#79

Post by karthikb »

TylerE wrote: post #75
karthikb wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suggest that you actually look at privately run transit infrastructure that exists today. Tokyo subway systems (JR, Tokyo Metro, Keisei) - all private. Or Hong Kong - MTR is private. The real problem is putting operations and verification in the same hat - public or private. Private transit systems work well when government regulators have the power to set and enforce a strict SLA. They fail without oversight. Same w…

Your definition of 'Private' is interesting. Tokyo Metro is owned by... the national and local government.

Tokyo metro is one company of many that provide subway services in Tokyo. There’s also JR, Keisei, and several other companies. Some are fully private, some are joint ventures with the government - but key is that none of these companies have oversight power over themselves.
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